Once upon a time a friend sent me a message about her tiny closet laundry room. It wasn’t really a client request, it was more like “someday I wish I could make this laundry closet something but its just so small and blah that it would probably never be anything good.” (Paraphrased obviously, this was a long time ago)
It wasn’t just the semi-hopeless tone but this lit a fire in me. I wanted her to know she could have a great laundry space even if it’s not ideal size wise. I could feel the potential.
It made me think back to the laundry room in our old house. It was a disaster of a space in how it was laid out (tiny + the only walk through to the garage) but what I did to it style wise was maybe my most favorite thing in that house.
Fast forward to the only slightly larger laundry room in our current house. It was one of the first spaces I made some tweaks to and it was actually one of the most popular things I’ve ever done on Instagram (back when instagram was based on your content not how you play the algorithm. I’m not bitter 😉)
And now this hallway. This hallway has my heart. This hallway is the most "me" thing I think I’ve ever done. I love it more than a person should love a teeny little hallway.
It’s not even that I put a lot of careful thought into this space (I did by the way. Sometimes design is a bit of “throw it up on the wall and see how it looks” but this was months and months of careful thought) This teeny space combined with all these past experiences made me realize that small spaces have the opportunity for the biggest impact.
Let’s unpack that thought for a bit. This particular space is just under 4x7 and has four doors, a large cased opening, a thermostat, and a ceiling return air vent. There isn’t much space for, well, anything. There’s no furniture to select or layouts to plan… it’s really just the perfect little canvas.
Every little thing you do in a small space carries so much weight. One piece of art in a small powder room is more of a focal point than a bed in a huge bedroom. If you have one sliver of a wall, it counts that much more.
I think we miss these opportunities. We get so caught up in the big projects and larger spaces (I’m still desperate to have my kitchen ceilings painted! I do this too!) but we miss these little pockets of potential greatness. This hallway finished off the spaces around it. When you look across my house through the living room, you look past all that and see this. It’s like the little heartbeat of this side of the house.
These small spaces can also be the perfect opportunity to see progress. If you’re even reading this, my guess is you care about your home and you want to create it for you. But we all have budget and or time constraints. (See above. My kitchen ceiling job is way out of budget for me right now) But, we can totally transform our tiny spaces for maybe even the cost of a can of paint.
Don’t sleep on the small areas in your home. Don’t think you have to have the big spaces in order before you can plan the little ones. Don’t think they don’t matter because they do… some might even matter more.
Wallpaper, a little paint, a light fixture and a ceiling medallion made me fall in serious love. Small spaces are really everything.
